Ciao TUTTI!!! Come va? Spero che tutti siete bene.
I am doing absolutely wonderful. I had the wonderful oppurtunity to hear from everyone and read their letters. Thank you for your letters and your support. I would just like to start this by saying, dont let the subject line get you. I had a great week. I went on two scambi this week. SPLITS. I went to Como and Merate. And I went with two missionaries that were both about to be going home, one that lived in El Dorado hillls that I have seen before. He was very quiet though. Didnt talk to me at all! Like litterally at all. It was silent and I am not good with silence so I would try to talk to him but nothing. No response. Only a yes or a no. Sometimes even a blank stare. Its ok. He is a great zone leader and is doing very well with baptisms there in Como. But the way he does casa is very....awkward. Kind of rings and runs. And then when the person opens up its a spring back up the stairs to talk to them and shove the BOM in their face. Kind of an awkward moment for me. I thought, Well then, thats how its not supposed to go. Then yesterday I was in Merate with my District leader. He wouldnt stop talking. I dont understand it. Like asking weird questions and then talking about some bad companions he has had. I though it was so funny but I didnt want to laugh whenever he talked but it was nice. I talked back. I talked alot and satisfied his needs of a person to talk to. Right before we went out of the street he told me his isnt very good at talking with people so I am going to be teaching all of the lessons and contacts. Awkward. But surprisingly i talked with basically everyone, and held conversations with basically everyone. I didnt say it in all perfect Italian but it was great. But that thought, he is almost done, shouldnt he help me. Well then, thats how its not supposed to go. HMMMM!!! Let me just say this, my Italian has shot through the roof. I held a 40 minute conversation with someone last night and she complained about the catholic church and why she hasnt been going, and then said, WHY IS YOUR CHURCH DIFFERENT. I told her whats up and invited and she is coming this sunday. The lord has really blessed me with the language. I cant believe that I understand basically everything. Some words fly over my head. But I get the basic concept. I know that abusare is to abuse. The lady last night used that alot about the catholic church. Penso che e schiffo quando un vescovo abusa un bambino. I think it is disguisting when a bishop abuses little children. I defintiely agreed with that. There have been 5 different news stories about that since I have been here. BAD TIMES IN ITALY!!
The food is amazing by the way. The pizzas are funny. They kind of just throw stuff on the pizza in no organized manner and just throw it in the oven. Its good but like I order a diavola, pepperoni, and i get like 4 pieces of pepperoni on there!!! But it was funny last night, we knocked again into dinner. I dont know what It is but we have the best luck with that. I hope that everyone understands that this doesnt happen very often. Like people have gone their entire mission without knocking into dinner, and I have done it twice with Anziano Anderson. We are just way lucky. And before dinner the son comes out and he speaks perfect english. He is working for some company that deals with hinges for doors in America so he has to know. We talk to him for a little bit and he goes, do you want to watch tv...we said no we are good. He then turned it on and said, I need to watch Fox News to practice. SO I watched fox news from AMERICA for like 10 minutes before he turned it to.....drummroll....Spring Training baseball. He asked if we liked baseball and both of us just nodded as we were entranced by the tv. Detroit and Atlanta. Good game. They didnt turn it off during dinner. It was on for like an hour. I miss baseball. But we taught a great lesson about authority because that is what all italians think the catholic church has!! Hahahaha. Then the father talked himself into saying that the Catholic church is not true. We said a prayer and invited them to the church and left. Good times.
We have a few lessons this week. The mission goal is 20 lessons a week. That is freaking hard in Lecco. Like the most lecco has gotten in a week was like 7 for the past 5 transfers but last week we got 13!! We are working very hard. We have a few new investigators. And our very promising one, or so we thought, she is a prostitute. We had to drop that one. IT only seemed right. hahahha. Oh and those people from Crump, i know about all of them. Most of them are active and strong but there are a few that are not. Pelluchi is awesome. He helps us out a lot. Some of them have changed. And the Bossetti family, we found out they are not married and wont be able to be married for about 3 years because divorces here are impossible so they just drop and move in somehwere else. Funny. But BAD!!!
I hope everything is well in Hawaii and everywhere else in the world. Tell the Goolds i said hi. Love you all
Anziano Treadway